


One More Moment of Peace

by CrystalMoon884



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, One Shot, Prose for forensics later this year, Slice of Life, very short story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2016-11-20
Packaged: 2018-09-01 04:47:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8608555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrystalMoon884/pseuds/CrystalMoon884
Summary: A very short story about one of my favorite places on Earth, mixed with some inspiration from If I Stay.This is going to be my piece for forensics (public speaking club for high schoolers) this year, and I hope you like it! I hope to get to state again this year!





	

The Graveyard was so peaceful.

 

The dead and dying Chromebooks in the dim light from the windows made everything look. . . welcoming. The posters of Rosie the Riveter (one the librarian’s role models) were plastered all over one of the walls. They were faded from years of sunlight during the summer, and the muted colors made the place feel more like home, like they should.

 

Have you ever just found a place that was so wonderful, so magical, so amazing that you couldn’t even put it into words? A place too amazing for Earth to even contain, someplace you dream about, someplace that would wish could exist forever?

 

That is what the Graveyard was to me.

 

There was no sound in there, the dull humming of the lights was nonexistent, the ringing of phones couldn’t be heard. There wasn’t the sound of pages being turned from the library, the occasional ringtone from a student who forgot to turn their ringer off when they came to school that morning. It was as if the entire high school just ceased to exist, just for a little while.

 

Yet, it was still real, just outside the protective walls of darkness and peacefulness.

 

I groaned, thinking about my math test I’d need to take next hour. I wasn’t looking forward to it, so I had curled myself up in the Graveyard, on a window sill, hoping to read.

 

So far, I hadn’t even turned the page I was on. The book just sat next to me, open to what looked like the author’s note at the end.

 

I was having a. . . what are they called. . . existential crisis? Yeah, one of those!

 

The funny part is, it wasn’t math that had caused it.

 

The Graveyard got its light from two windows on the far wall from the door. The room itself was only about fifteen feet long, and only about ten feet wide. But it had two of my favorite windows in the whole school.

 

From the windows in the Graveyard, one could see the school’s main parking lot, the Culver’s, mexican food place, Family Video, Walgreens and Ace Hardware. They all sat on a busy strip of road that connected the whole town together, from the industrial parts to the residential parts to the school area where I currently sat.

 

It was the perfect view. I could see people going about their day, I could see the different cars that were in the parking lot and wonder if they belonged to a student or a staff member. The better looking ones that were newer models were usually staff member’s cars, but every once in a while I was wrong about who a car belonged to. Like when I told my friend that new model Audi had to be a teacher’s car.

 

The red and blue, black and white cars filled the lot, shining in the sun on clear days, they would almost glow on those days. When it was raining, or when the clouds closed up the sky, sealing away the sun, the cars looked like they were a part of a painting, and had a lackluster beauty that never ceased to amaze and entice me.

 

It was here, when I was looking at the cars and all of the little people down below, walking around, just going about their days, that I realised that I will never get that far in life.

 

It wasn’t the people, or the cars, or the bright light of the car’s windshields in the bright morning and afternoon sun.

 

It was when Erin walked through the doors, unknowing of my presence.

 

You know how I before that sometimes you just want to have a moment, because it so wonderful? Well, Erin had helped to create that perfect moment that I had once lived in, what seemed like a lifetime ago now.

 

Walking in, she pushed her glasses up her face. Like many librarians she wore glasses, and did, in fact, look very good without then on and when she had her hair down. Just like the urban legend goes.

 

Erin was about fifty years old, with an adorable grandson and gorgeous three daughters. She had beagles at home (all the sticky notes she used had the dogs all over them) and was usually covered in a fine layer of dog hair that was nearly invisible unless you got up close and you were looking for it.

 

She had on khaki pants, a bright yellow shirt and black shoes. Her outfit was perfectly put together with her Sterling Silver bracelets, rings and necklace. After pushing her glasses up her nose again, she picked up an old silver Chromebook, with a large message of ‘DOESN’T CONNECT TO WIFI’ scrawled on the back of it in bold black Sharpie.

 

After picking it up, she turned back around and walked quickly out of the room, even after I had smiled and waved at her. Erin was one of my favorite people on planet Earth, I’d always wave to her.

 

We all have those people in our lives, and Erin was one of those people to me, and I to her. Whenever I was helping with Chromebooks in the library, we worked really well together.

 

I looked down at my hands, sighing. I looked longingly out at the parking lot, remembering the loud crash, the flashes of pain in my ribs, then my lungs, then my head. 

 

I could remember the flash of the shining white new Audi in the sunlight, how the windshield shown in the perfect sun. It was so new, there wasn’t even a single scratch or stain from bird poop on the car, unlike the rest of the cars in the lot.

 

Those are not cheap, it would only make sense for a teacher, an experienced driver to have one.

 

Right?

 

I could remember the light, just like from the movies. The bright light that looked like it should blind and make it so that you can never see again, but it was so calming, so peaceful. It made me feel like all of my toiling was over, that I was done here. It felt like a small child being ripped away from an unpleasant place by a loving parent.

 

I also remembered, at that very moment, how much I had left to do. I had two more years of high school to complete, I had to take the ACT and go to college. I had to go through Driver’s Ed, and fail my driving test the first time and then pass with flying colors the second time. I still had to find my true love and go to prom.

 

Seeing the light, I saw how happy I would be, but I knew something else. I wasn’t done here, not yet. I had so much more to do, so many people yet to meet. So many joys and failures still awaited me.

 

All I wanted was life, even just another day of it. I’d make the best of it. Eat all the food I love, see my friends one more time, do something stupid and go on a really fun chase with the cops.  
I couldn’t go, not yet. I had things to do.

 

I still had some kick left in me, even in my dying state. I turned away from the light. It was a fool’s errand, but if I saw it then, or even if I saw it now, it didn’t matter. 

 

I knew what I wanted, and death wasn’t it.

 

It seemed fitting that since I refused to truly die, my body would stay alive. It was in terrible condition since the crash in a hospital a hundred miles away in a large, expensive hospital. When my parents chose to ship me out there, I didn’t go with. I was just a soul, divided from its body. It was nothing to me. 

 

My injuries were too bad for me to return to my body, what was the point in chasing after something that will only cause me pain?

 

I know that I should feel bad about the medical bills, but I had died before I was really done with living. The cost of the bills altogether would probably cost as much as college would, so I wasn’t really doing anything wrong, really.

 

I just wanted to have my moment, just for a few more years.

 

I leaned my head back, touching it to the side of the windowsill, letting myself relax.

 

This was the way to spend the mortal and immortal life, for it is in passing that we achieve immortality.

 

So why did I feel so dead inside?

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed the story!  
> Have an amazing day and a wonderful week, month and year!


End file.
